Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 95 gained, 122 declined, and 8 were unchanged. Itochu Corp. led advancers with a rise of 6.15% followed by Konami Corp gaining 5.54%.

Crude oil prices continued to fall on speculation that U.S. inventories increased to 2.2 million barrels last week.

Crude oil for March delivery fell 0.5% to $89.60 per barrel, while contract prices gained 1.2% to $90.02 per barrel yesterday. Nippon Oil Corp slipped 4.80% as a result.

Platinum prices extended gains from last week and rose 0.6% to 5,900 per gram on the Tokyo Commodities Exchange and platinum for immediate delivery jumped 0.4% to $1,805 an ounce on expectations that output from South Africa will continue to decline on power rationing.

Sumitomo Metal Industries rose 1.19% and Sumitomo Metal Mining advanced 2.76%.

Merger News

The Japan Times online edition reported today that Sapporo Holdings Limited announced in a statement that its panel, consisting of one lawyer and two outside experts, had judged that the Steel Partners Japan’s buyout proposal will hurt shareholders.

The panel believes that “the buyout plan is highly likely to hurt Sapporo Holdings Limited corporate value and it would be extremely harmful to the common interest of shareholders.”

Steel Partners recently proposed a tender offer to raise its stake 66.6% from the 17.52% equity it currently holds if the brewer’s board of directors approved the move.

The yen advanced 0.24% from 106.97 to 106.95 at the close of trade.

Gainers and Losers

Itochu Corp. led advancers of the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 6.15% followed by rises in Konami Corp. of 5.54%, in Yahoo Japan Corp. of 5%, in Japan Tobacco of 4.91%, and in Denki Kagaku of 4.23%.

Mitsubishi Rayon Co. led decliners of the Nikkei index shares with a fall of 17.14% followed by rises in Olympus Corp. of 13.89%, in Sapporo Holdings of 6.87%, in Konica Minolta Holdings of 6.81%, and Sumitomo Realty of 6.09%.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 114.20 or 0.82% to 13,745.50, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index decreased 223.38 or 0.89% closed to 24,808.70, in Australia ASX 200 index lower 74.50 or 1.27% to close 5,792.90.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 6.44 or 0.38% to close at 1,696.57, in Thailand SET index closed lower 3.88 or 0.48% to 807.68, and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 2.62 or 0.10% to 2,704.25. Sensex index in India increased 2.84 or 0.02% to 18,663.16.

3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney- Australia increased rates by 0.25% to 7%.

ASX 200 index lost 1.3% or 74.5 to close at 5,792.90.


The Preliminary market turnover was 1.59 billion shares worth $5.47 billion, with 422 stocks moving up, 765 stocks moving down and 344 unchanged.

Reserve Bank of Australia Hikes Rates

The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 7%. The accompanying statement from the Governor Glenn Stevens suggested that the inflation is running above the bank’s target. The statement highlighted, “But given the extent of pressure on capacity and the build-up in inflation, a significant slowing in demand from its recent pace is likely to be necessary to reduce inflation over time.

The Board took careful note of recent events abroad and developments in financial markets. The world economy is slowing and it now appears likely that global growth will be below trend in 2008. Recent trends in world commodity markets suggest, however, that Australia’s terms of trade are likely to rise further.”